Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)
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292. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the action his Department has taken to assist the credit unions in the roll out and extension of the personal microcredit scheme, as promised in the programme for Government. [32105/16]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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A Personal Micro Credit Scheme providing for small scale loans by Credit Unions to borrowers who have difficulty accessing low cost credit has been piloted in 30 credit unions. The loans under the scheme range from €100 to a maximum of €2,000, and have a maximum interest rate of 12% per annum. Over 1,200 loans were drawn down under the Scheme during the pilot with an overall value of over €720,000. The average individual loan value drawn down was €500. The focus of the pilot scheme was social welfare recipients who availed of the loans from their Credit Union and were facilitated, with their consent, in the repayment of such loans through the Household Budgeting facility, operated by An Post. The deductions from their weekly social welfare payments were then transmitted on to the relevant Credit Union.

The Programme for a Partnership Governmentprovides for the rollout and extension of the Personal Microcredit Scheme. Following an evaluation of the pilot, the Implementation Group, which is chaired by my Department and comprises all relevant stakeholders, is working towards this aim. Incremental progress is being made towards extending the geographical coverage of the loan scheme through efforts to recruit Credit Unions to participate in the scheme. To help advance this aim, I have written to all Credit Union Chairpersons and Managers, to encourage their participation.

The list of credit unions offering the scheme is updated regularly and is available at the attached link www.itmakessenseloan.ie/participating-credit-unionsand on the It Makes SenseFacebook page.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.